Custom duty on car import to South Africa from the US

Any plan of importing a car to South Africa from the USA requires a lot of attention and consideration. There are a lot many tax implications and custom regulations involved in the entire process which make it quite tedious and sometimes even expensive. Incase you have attained a permanent residency in South Africa you can actually succeed in importing your car free of al customs duty under the rebate item 407.04.

There are certain other regulations also that need to be followed in compliance with the aforesaid rebate. However, the full duty rebate is only applicable provided you have owned and used the car for a minimum period of 12 months. Moreover, once the car is imported to South Africa, it should not be hired, lent, offered, pledged, leased, offered, exchanged, given away, sold or disposed off within 20 months of clearance.

The initial 20 months from the date of clearance is quite crucial for you. During this period you should not be missing from South Africa for a period of more than 3 months as this will be taken as a proof that the car was not imported to be used personally by you.

There are also options to import a car temporarily to South Africa under the rebate item 490.03. If you have taken a temporary citizenship in South Africa, a provisional payment can be made to the customs or a surety bond can be arranged with the South Africa bank for the amount of duties payable. A car being imported on temporary basis does not even need an import permit.